“Molon labe, sir.”
I hurry back to the company area and go from platoon to platoon, readjusting the positions as needed. Just as the last of the twilight disappears from the sky, a Humvee comes over, the forty millimeter Mk 19 grenade launcher on it a welcome sight. With range out to a mile, and better yet, the ability to drop grenades in an arc, it's a massive dose of firepower for the company. I already know where to put it, behind a half-destroyed wall that will give the Hummer some cover and concealment while still giving the gunner on top a pretty good field of fire.
“Sir?” First Sergeant asks as I leave the Hummer behind to get set up and head back toward second platoon, which is in the middle of my area.
“What's up, Top?”
“Sir, the men are worried. No offense. If the bad guys hit us hard, we could be in for a world of shit.” First Sergeant looks at me pensively, and I stop, casually looking down the road. Behind me, the town's buttoned up, with every civilian Afghan burrowed as deep as they can. These people have been living through this for nearly forty years now, if you include the Soviet occupation. It's a part of life for them as common as a snowstorm in Michigan or a hurricane in the Carolinas.
Top's right though. I'm pretty unproven, other than slipping them some comforting snacks from home every once in a while. We haven't been under fire yet, not on this rotation, and they don't know me well enough to trust me. Okay, I can handle it. “I understand, Top. Say, you know much about the Spartans? The ancient ones.”
“Negative, sir. Captain Stephens told us about Molon Labe, but that's about it.”
“Crazy battle, Thermopylae,” I reply, picking up a rock and tossing it away where it flies into the night. “But I like something else in Spartan history. During the rise of Phillip of Macedon—he was Alexander the Great's father—he wanted to take over the Peloponnese, the part of Greece where Sparta is located. He assembled what may have been the greatest army in the world at the time, and by this point, the Spartans were nowhere near the fighting force they'd been under Leonidas, but they still had their reputation and their pride. So, Phillip sent them an emissary with a message. In it, he threatened them. He said, 'Surrender, for if my army invades Sparta, we will kill every Spartan male, and every Spartan woman will be raped and made our slave. Your children will be sold into slavery, your old people slaughtered. Your crops will be burned, and no stone will be left unturned in the ruins of your villages.' You know what the Spartan reply was?”
“Negative, sir. What did they say?”
I smile and look at the First Sergeant, ready. “They sent back a one-word reply. 'If.' Phillip of Macedon never invaded Sparta. Got me?”
First Sergeant nods, his eyes looking at me with newfound respect. “I got you, sir.”
“Then spread the word. If.”
“If, sir.”
Top hustles off, and I take a deep breath, hoping that little speech wasn't just bullshit. A rifle cracks in the distance, and I hurry off. It's time.
Dawn breaks, and I'm limping, blood soaking the lower half of my right ACU trouser leg, a ricochet that clipped the meat of my calf sometime during the fire fight. I'm exhausted, but I can't rest, not yet. Not until I know that my men are safe.
My God, the enemy fought hard, with bravery and ferocity that, even though they were my enemy, earned my respect. Attacks on horseback, attacks on foot, any and everything they could think of to break through our defenses. As Lieutenant Colonel Kierney expected, most of the attacks came against the southern perimeter of town, although Headquarters Company soaked up plenty of probes themselves.
My face is covered in gray dust, and I'm not sure if it's dust or the souls of the men who have died tonight, clinging to my face in a desperate attempt to be reborn instead of departing to the afterlife. Even with the advantage that night vision gave us, they were able to get close, and more than once, I squeezed off bursts that blew open men's chests so close that I could see the light leave their eyes as they died.